On The Way To A Smile : Case of AI
by heartonpins
Summary: Reeve Tuesti, a man who always seemed to be underestimated by the company, stumbles across an abandoned program hidden deep within the ShinRa files. This being may help him reconnect with his past and be a precious part of his future.
1. Chapter 1

_The sun overhead was warm and bright, ruling over the clear blue sky. The field of green grass and flowers stretched out as far as the eye could see. A cool breeze swept past, bringing with it the sweet smells of summer. Not too far off stood a young woman in a pale summer dress. She held a hand to her hat, keeping the wind from blowing it away as the other was held to a tall yellow feathered creature. She laughed, both in joy and sudden suspensful fright as the bird fed from her palm. The wind in her soft brown hair, her green eyes alight with life. __Never before had he seen such a beautiful sight. Would he ever see it again? _

"Commissioner?"

The Commissioner, Reeve Tuesti, was immediately brought out of his reverie and returned his attention to the uniform clad man standing in front of his desk. By the look on his face, he must have called him several times to no reply. Reeve straightened himself in his chair, at a loss of what to say. He wasn't sure how long he'd been tuned out, or when the man had entered. It didn't do well for his image to be sitting around with a distant expression.

"Er, I apologize," He stammered after searching his mind for something better to say, to which he failed.

"Yes... you wanted to see me?" The uniformed man questioned, looking somewhat concerned for the man sitting at the desk.

"Ah, yes," Reeve's mind was slowly grasping the situation. "Yes, I was meaning to ask how the actions in North Corel were progressing."

"Yes sir, the operations in the town are successfully going as planned. The Reactor has been completely demolished and is being properly disposed of as we speak. It should be entirely cleared in a matter of days."

Although his mind was still somewhat slowed, as though he'd woken up from a dream, Reeve put on his practiced face of stern listening as the man explained how the preparations and other tasks were being carried out. He had placed several files on his desk to further add to the other charts and photos.

"Good," Murmured Reeve, slowly leafing through the documents. "Very good." His voice was distant. "Finally something good is going our way…"

"After this, we'll continue onto the Mako Reactor in Nibelheim, as planned."

A moment passed. Reeve's eyes had stopped moving over the files and had gone unfocused. Snapping back, he set down the files and set his hands casually on the desk, lacing his fingers together in thought. The reporting officer was looking at the man with slight concern, it wasn't often their Commissioner seemed taken up by other things. Reeve offered a simple laugh, brushing away any questions the officer may have been thinking.

"Very well then, thank you for the report."

"Sir," The man saluted, turned on his heel and exited the room.

Reeve remained straight and alert in his chair until the door closed behind the officer. He let out a short breath, his head lowering to look down at his file covered desk. Report upon report lay strewn in an unorganized manner. He hadn't had time to get through them after returning from his small meeting in Edge. The WRO was successfully dismantling the mako reactors scattered across the world and removing any toxicity of the life stream from the surrounding area. It seemed to be improving as much of the geostigma was dissipating. But was it enough? He often wondered this.

He glanced over to the map tacked to the wall at his left before standing from his chair and crossing the room. Reeve perused the many locations of the satellite photograph of the world geography. It was recent, taken only days before and already differences in vegitation and activity could be seen. Everywhere except…

Reeve placed a hand on the large circular mass of gray that had once been a thriving city; a city that had been the start of the mess the planet was in now. This place was beyond any hope of immediate recovery. It would take years for it to return to its former self. Perhaps not the city, but the life around it. The ground was gray, cracked and dead, not so much as a weed grew from it's soil. The sky was more often than not covered by clouds, as though this place, due to it's past, had lost it's privilege to bask in the warm rays of the sun.

And yet, a new life had started only a stone's throw away from this place. The people had moved on as best they could, through all their losses and had scraped out a living for themselves.

_"So life could still survive even there."_

Reeve had spent most of his time traveling around the world supervising many of the WRO's operations, it had been a while since he had taken afew days to regain some sense of much needed relaxation. But, being the leader of a world run organization meant never really leaving work, as he was constantly bombarded by reports from many of his employees. This kept his mind pondering on something either way.

Lately, he had found himself lost to memories long since past, in a time where relative peace blanketed the planet. When he was working for ShinRa, a guilded time of profit. A look of bitterness came over Reeve as this thought emerged. While he knew it wasn't entirely his fault, he felt he had a hand in landing them all in the current state of affairs. He'd been assigned the role of creating the mako reactors. The life stream sucking machines that made life for man easier. He felt it was his obligation as WRO to set things right again. His hand turned into a fist and gave the wall a firm rap on the Midgar scan when the door creaked open.

"May I come in?" A soft voice broke the stiff silence of the room. Reeve looked over to see the partial face of a young woman looking into the room from beyond the threshold.

"Ah, Leanna." He greeted, thankful to have a distraction from his sudden line of thought. "Please, come in. You don't have to knock."

"Well, I can't just barge in here, you might have been having a meeting." The girl used her shoulder to push open the door, holding a small tray with a steaming mug and a small bowl of packaged creamers and sugar. She crossed the empty space of room to his workdesk and set down the tray.

"I made some fresh coffee and you have privilege of the first cup." She announced as she set the tray onto the table, careful not to obscure any documents, though it was rather difficult.

"Hmm, just what I think I need." Agreed Reeve as he approached the desk and took the cup. After taking a slow sip, he let out a sigh, further strengthening his will to relax.

"I was beginning to worry," Spoke the young woman, looking rather shy at the thought of saying such. "I mean, I know you're busy and you had to run to a meeting, but it was so sudden. You even canceled all your other appointments. Is everything all right?"

Reeve seemed slightly stunned by her words, but all the same chuckled at this, pausing a moment as though to think it over before placing his free hand atop his assistance's head. "Everything's fine. I just felt it was more important than listening to adults argue with one another."

Leanna looked as though there were no higher praise in existence. "Might I ask who it was?"

Reeve took in a breath and set down the cup. "A young boy. The one under the care of our friend in Edge. He was wanting to join the WRO."

"A boy? What did you tell him?"

"No, of course. He told me all that had happened to him, and while I feel I'm in debt to him, I couldn't let him join. Perhaps there is some other way he could help but...not the way adults take care of things."

A short moment of silence passed, they could hear the goings on of the courtyard outside the curtained windows. Birds chirrping, voices carrying on. It was then Reeve assessed something after looking closely at the young woman's face.

"…Leanna, have you been feeling well?" He asked, his voice hinting concern as he slid is hand beneath her chin, angling her face upwards. Leanna looked at Reeve with a puzzled expression.

"Feeling well?" She returned the question, unable to understand what he was implying.

"It just seems that you've lost…a bit of color, is all." He expressed.

"Have I?" Leanna looked as though this statement was something awful.

"It's nothing bad." Reeve quickly replied, not wanting to cause her an alarm. "You must just be exhausted from all that's been happening."

"But I feel fine." She assured him with an uncertain smile. Reeve looked at her for another few seconds before smiling himself, though he felt it was half hearted. Leanna did indeed look as though she had lost a fair amount of color, if that was even possible. Something seemed to be fading from those violet eyes. Was it just a trick of the light, or were they indeed becoming more dim with each passing day?

Leanna mimicked Reeve and placed a hand beneath his chin. "I think _you're_ the one who's been losing a bit of color." She asserted with a warming smile. "I'm glad you've decided to take several days leave from work. You need rest. They can manage on their own. They are _adults, _after all." She added the last with a lighter air.

Reeve took Leanna's hand in his. It wasn't cold, per say, but it wasn't entirely warm. "I'm sure they can." His smile was confident at this. Leanna looked more cheerily at the expression on Reeve's face. "Why don't you go outside. Get some fresh air." He suggested. "You've done enough work in here." He released her hand.

Withdrawing it, Leanna looked out the window behind them through the partially opened curtains. The sun flooded the cobblestone street outside, the fountain in the water glimmered as it reflected the clear sky and bright sun. Leanna took a moment to think this over before agreeing.

Several minutes later, Reeve lingered at his window, watching as his assistant, and in a strange way, daughter, stand near the fountain to admire its construction, as well as speak with a couple of women.

How long had it been since she was merely a passing thought in his mind. Three years now since the first time she'd opened her eyes, four years including the pre-planning. Sometimes he could hardly believe such a creation ever came from his hands. Cait Sith had been easy enough to create, being small in size and only serving function as moving communication. Leanna was much more complex. Though outside she was a young woman, with soft features, tan hair and kind eyes, she was entirely artificial. Well, perhaps not entirely.

The room seemed to melt away as Reeve's mind went back in time all those years ago.

* * *

_**11/6/11**_

_Hello readers! New and old! Thank you for reading my story! Now I realize I'm probably going a bit out on a limb here but yes, Reeve Tuesti is indeed the main character of this fanfiction. How often does that happen, eh? I don't even know where it came from. 3 AM, couldn't sleep. Just started typing. Now this isn't the same story I typed up several years ago. I decided to go through again and give it a good revamp. Some new ideas tossed in here and there and hopefully it'll all go together rather well. It's not going to be long, more of a series of flashbacks really. And yes, there will be an OC involved._

_Now don't run away! If you've read this far you should hinder a guess at just what this fanfic is going to involve. There won't be any great adventuring but instead it's going to shed some light on my Final Fantasy OC Leanna, as well as Reeve's history. I don't recall much from Final Fantasy 7 so I'm going to leave 'plot placement' details kind of vague so you can just guess what happens when._

_So hopefully you'll enjoy my story! If you do, and you love Final Fantasy XIII, and Team NORA, head on over to my profile and read my other fanfic I'm also writing! See you in the next chapter!_


	2. Chapter 2

It was one of those rare, cloudless days over Midgar, a day many people wouldn't pass up to stroll about outside and enjoy the sun's warmth. At least most people. For Reeve Tuesti, he was indoors at his desk, tapping the end of a pen rhythmically against the angled desk. For some time now, his mind had been drawing a blank. No matter how hard he pushed, nothing surfaced through the fog. Not a single line or stroke. How was he supposed to be the leader of Urban Development if he couldn't develop anything.

Well, he did create the mako reactors, which at that moment walled in the upper city of Midgar, but after that, everything felt like a step backwards. There had to be something he could create that was on par with it. But nothing came. Perhaps there simply wasn't anything to build. He had no set assignments or deadline, why was he pushing himself so hard? He'd only end up with another migraine if he kept it up.

The man took in a breath and slowly let it out, as if expelling with it all his stresses. Of course, the action didn't work. He turned away from his desk to look across his room to the opened window. He had left it open in the hopes of tempting in a cool autumn breeze to help him think, but it hadn't been much help. It was then he began to look across the room and noticed how much he'd neglected it. He wasn't much of an organizing man, as clean cut as he appeared, and the room seemed to have fallen into disarray in the last few months.

Here and there were stacks of documents and papers he'd promised himself to read later, but never did. On the table near his desk he had a stack of books, another thing he'd told himself to read but entirely forgot and only ended up added more books to the pile. He recalled having made a note to himself to buy another filing cabinet, which he did, but it was empty as he hadn't gotten around to actually setting on the task of organizing. If his mother could see the state of his office, she'd be in hysterics.

He smiled at the thought and lifted himself from his chair. Perhaps now was as good a time as any to get started on something. But where to start was the problem. He stood in the center of his office, hands on his hips as he observed the mess, and decided the looming stack of files would have to be the first thing to go.

Once he set on it, Reeve wondered why he hadn't done this before. His mind had anticipated a horribly miserable time going through the papers, but when he realized he didn't even need to look at more than half of them, the job was surprisingly easy. Within a couple hours, he'd gone through most of the papers and had a trash bag full to the brim with papers he didn't need. Though he wasn't much of an organizer, he had divided the other papers into stacks of relative importance, the last one being ones he didn't need, but couldn't help but feel they should be kept someplace.

"Oi, Reeve," Called a voice from the door. Reeve was startled from his thinking and looked to see a man leaning into the door way. "Wow, you've finally started cleaning the place?"

Reeve smirked at the man's surprise at the situation. Then again, seeing a full grown man kneeling on the floor surrounded by papers was something to be at least a little surprised about.

"Well, all these papers were doing were collecting dust. Something the rest of the office does just fine without." Reeve spoke as he gingerly rose to his feet and gave his legs a good stretch. He was slowly noticing several sharp stings from his fingers, realizing all too late he was going to have to put up with several paper cuts now.

"We're headed out to lunch. Will you be joining us or are you too busy with your spring cleaning?"

"Yes, I'll just be a minute,"

Several minutes later, Reeve had joined with his co-worker down the hall.

"You're bringing your cleaning with you?" The man asked incredulously as the large stack of papers in Reeve's hands.

"No," Reeve smiled. "Since we're headed this way, I thought I'd leave these in the back office."

The two walked and chatted, holding comfortable conversation down through the halls and elevator ride to the lower floor. Before they reached the exit of the working hallways to the open entrance of the Urban Development building, Reeve broke away from his friend a moment to head down a lonely stretch of hallway. Here, he opened a door, leading him into an office that was by far in even worse condition than his a few floors up. This was Reeve's real mess of a problem, one he would have to tackle on another day he felt like cleaning. The room was dark, dusty and abandoned. It was a storage room that served good use for several other workers in Reeve's circle of friends. He rested the documents onto an empty space of desk, in the process sending a waft of dust into the air. What he hadn't realized was that he started a sort of chain effect of falling objects in the process.

He tried his best to catch the items but several things clattered to the floor. The man heaved a sigh, if one thing was finally going right in his day, something else had to go wrong. He knelt to the floor and began to collect the fallen items when he realized one had rolled beneath the shelves. His hand was just small enough to fit under the gap, but once he felt the familiar feel of the pencil, he felt something else as well. He withdrew a small card shaped disk, plain gray with a worn label on the cover reading 'PGR LK6' in faded pen. He turned the disk over in his hands, finding nothing too remarkable about it when the door to the office opened.

"Come on, Reeve, don't tell me you've started cleaning in here too." Said his friend.

"Luckily, no." Reeve chuckled at this and quickly pocketed the disk.

Later that evening as he sat at his desk, his mind had wandered away from him, once again trying to draw up a design for something. He'd been in art blocks before, but somehow this one felt different. No ideas came to his mind, not even for future goals. He wasn't sure what to do with the blank cavas of his head. Then he remembered the disk in his pocket. He looked over it again and again, but there really was nothing special about this disk. Standard issue, small, probably not even holding that much data.

With a sigh, Reeve was about to toss it into the trash, when for curiosity's sake, he instead inserted into the slot of his computer. For a moment, he thought his assumptions had been correct. It was a discarded empty disk, but then a window popped up. Then closed, followed by another as the computer accessed whatever data was on the card.

Finally a window remained open, the text reading 'Voice Recognition: Data Expired. Please select OK to update."

Without knowing what else to do, Reeve clicked okay and watched attentively. A new box appeared, within it, a black window with a thin white line was displayed. Reeve was still a moment, unsure of what was happening, but the moment he moved his hand, the line jumped. Above the box there was an indication to state his name. For a moment, the man stammered.

"Er, Reeve Tuesti." For a few moments, nothing happened, then a new indication appeared above the window. 'Begin Session with PGR LK6.'

The same little lined box appeared, picking up the noises Reeve made as he awkwardly moved around in his chair. This was a strange event indeed, considering he hadn't expected anything more than perhaps a simple saved document on the desk and instead was presented with this. Perhaps he stumbled upon some kind of program that belonged to one of his other colleagues. He had half a mind to go out and ask if anyone had lost the disk in the room, but it was after work hours and he was sure they'd all gone home by now.

His dark eyes rested upon the box, thinking that nothing would happen unless he made a move apparently. Lamely he started, "H-hello?"

There was silence. Perhaps this was all a silly idea. This was probably just a recording software meant to bring easier data saving than typing. Then, to his great surprise, he heard a reply in the softest voice he'd ever imagined to source from a computer.

"..H-hello."

* * *

**_11/6/11_**

_I just love those weeks/months that go by, you just sit there going ' I should work on the fanfic..Ah..later.' and then you find out it's been months since you last updated. Sit down for one session of typing and suddenly you're on a roll of chapters. I really should be sleeping, going out of town tomorrow._

_I'm sorry if my writing style suddenly changed since the last chapter which was about...an hour ago. I hardly changed that one from the way the story originally started. But lately I've been watching a lot of British comedy and television so the 'voice' in my head when I'm talking is speaking with a British accent and phrasing words differently. So if it shows up in my writing I'm sorry._

_So what you've just read is actually the rough/final draft of the chapter. I just typed it up and posted it for the world to see, if they want to see it. And I'll probably read it again in a couple days and go 'Who told me this was okay to put up.' But until then, I'm tired and don't really care..._


End file.
